Well, What can you say! What a fabulous venue right next to Towerbridge, London[google link]. Large window upstairs giving a fabulous view of the Bridge and “The Egg” etc. The large sprung wooden floor is terrific. I arrived early, unlike the last time [Previous post] so decided to go and have a meal in view of the serious dancing I would be doing all night long. The restaurant downstairs The Don [Jump to link for The Don.org] with Italian cuisine is clean, meticulous, waiters polite and well trained and the food; I had grilled Sea Bass Pescatore …finger licking good. Drink is a bit on the pricey side, but that obviously relates to the location.

This was Veronica’s [Jump to Veronica’s invite]first Salsa class in that venue and they obviously didn’t have enough time to do the essential marketing. The class couldn’t really get going, due to the lack of numbers. And she kindly refunded my fee. So the 12 or 14 of us (including Bar staff and DJ) just stayed and danced, talked and shared a few drinks and all-in-all it was a pleasant evening. Veronica and her friends make you feel welcome and I even got to learn Colombian style of Salsa ( as some of them were Colombian). I am so used to linear, 8 beat LA CBL (Jump if you need to find out about Cross Body Lead) moves that it was a bit difficult to let go and just feel the 4 beat and dance to that.

Words can never adequately describe an art from such as Salsa because it is about performance, but let me try and describe some of the moves I learnt. Having said that, get you arse down to a salsa class and learn to do it with finesse. Because one can never learn Salsa by just reading about.

The reason why I am putting it here is:
a)Inspirational. It’s a personal reminder of a good experience.
b) Motivational. Let’s assume you are unable to get to a Salsa class or venue then at least you may be encouraged to do so.

Neville has been running a series of special Monday classes with guest teachers which appears to be a success.

Salsa on a Monday just got a whole lot better!!!!!!……… after the success of booking of Sinead, Moe Flex and Rosa & Giles on Monday nights,…………

Latino Beat has now booked some of the best Instructors on the UK Salsa circuit for every Monday in July, see below for details………..

Make a plan to be at LA VISTA CLUB from this coming FRIDAY 24th July as there will be SALSA CLASSES from 7 to 9pm, £5 one hour, £8 two hours with Veronica Monreal as your teacher. After class you are able to enjoy our club party without extra payment and till 2am

Remember to come early and enjoy our FREE ENTRANCE PROMOTION before 10pm and our HAPPY HOUR, BUY ONE DRINK AND GET ONE FREE, before 10pm as well. Open every FRIDAY and SATURDAY from 8pm to 2am.

This article is copied (IN FULL but would have preferred to link to a blog etc) from www.JoanBorysenko.com 393 Dixon Rd. Boulder, CO 80302
phone: 303-440-8460 * fax: 303-440-7580 [Jump to link]

The following seven stretches were chosen to relax the major muscle groups. In doing these exercises, keep two things in mind.
These are gentle letting-go stretches. The best way to develop a supple, limber, and relaxed body is to focus on melting into each stretch. Never bounce or push beyond what feels comfortable. Bouncing defeats the purpose of stretching because the quick pull on the muscle fibers alerts special sensors within the muscle to the sudden overstretch. Nerve signals from those receptors then automatically shorten the muscle. Bouncing therefore causes muscle fibers to shorten and tense rather than lengthen and relax. Bouncing can also strain or tear muscles as you pull on a group of shortened muscle fibers.
If you have any physical problem that limits your ability to exercise, consult with your physician before doing these or any other exercises. Taking responsibility for knowing your own limits is an important mind/body skill in itself, since many stressed people got that way in the first place through a tendency to overdo things! Read each exercise through and study the illustration before you try it.RELAXER 1: THE WALL HANG

Note: If you have any tendency toward back pain, bend your knees slightly before you begin to avoid any strain on your lower back.

Stand with your back to the wall, feet about shoulder width apart and nine to twelve inches out from the wall. Press the small of your back against the wall so that every vertebra is in contact with it. Close your eyes, breathe out a sigh of relief, and shift to abdominal breathing. Breathe slowly and naturally throughout this exercise. Begin by dropping your chin toward your chest. Drop your shoulders forward and then begin peeling your backbone off the wall, a single vertebra at a time if you can, continuing to drop forward. Your hips will slide up the wall as your upper body drops down. When you have dropped as far as you can, just hang there. Let your head and shoulders go like a rag doll. Take several breaths as you hang loose. Now gradually come back up, thinking about reattaching your vertebrae to the wall, one at a time. When you get back up, lean against the wall, breathing abdominally, to rest.

RELAXER 2: THE FOUNTAIN

Stand with your legs about shoulder width apart. Inhale and stretch your arms way up over your head, locking your thumbs together, feeling the stretch along your sides. Exhale, circling to the right. Inhale and stretch way up again, exhale, and circle right. Go once more to the right and then reverse, three times to the left. Remember to just let go without pushing or straining. The idea is to be curious about what you feel, enjoying the sensations, rather than trying to touch the floor and move further into the pose. Again, if you have any tendency toward back pain, bend your knees a little.

RELAXER 3: THE CAT

Get down on all fours. Inhale, lifting your head up and pushing your spine down, feeling it lengthen as your head reaches up (A). Let your belly balloon out. Exhale, dropping your head and arching your back up like an angry cat, pulling in your abdominal muscles (B). Repeat three to five times.

RELAXER 4: LEG EXTENSIONS

Still on all fours, inhale as you lift your head up and extend your right leg out in back of you (A), toes pointed. Exhale, dropping your head down and bending your leg inward as you bring your knee toward your forehead (B). Repeat three times on the right side and three times on the left.

RELAXER 5: FORWARD BENDS

In this three-part exercise, you lengthen your torso and stretch out first over the right leg, then the left, and finally both. Start by sitting up straight with both legs stretched out straight in front of you. Bend your left leg, placing the heel next to your groin, as if you were going to sit cross-legged. Inhale, stretching your arms high above your head. Turn slightly to your left, facing your toes, exhale and stretch forward from the hips (rather than rounding your back) over the outstretched leg. Hold on to your leg wherever it is comfortable to do so—whether at the knee, the shin, the ankle, or the foot if you’re very limber. On each of the next five exhales, see if you can lift your torso, move from your hips, and come a little further into the stretch. Most of the power that helps you bend forward comes from your abdominal muscles. Repeat on the left side. Now stretch both legs out in front of you, next to one another, and repeat the stretch a last time, lengthening yourself out and coming down over both legs together.

RELAXER 6: PELVIC TILT

Lie down on your back and bring your knees up so that your feet are on the floor, close to your buttocks. Flatten your back against the floor by tilting your pelvis backward. Tilt your pelvis forward and let the space between the small of your back and the floor reappear. Now coordinate the movements with your breathing. Inhale as you rock the pelvis forward, making the space (A). Let your belly fill as you do this. Exhale as you rock backward, flattening your back against the floor (B). With a little practice, you’ll get the idea of pressing your vertebrae onto the floor one at a time and picking them up off the floor in the same fashion. This is an excellent exercise for back tension. Repeat ten to twelve times or until you feel a release.

RELAXER 7: FINAL RELAXATION
Lie on your back with your legs comfortably apart so that your toes point out gently toward either side. Let your arms rest a foot or so away from your body, and rotate your shoulder blades together (like tucking imaginary wings against your back) so that your palms turn up. Take five abdominal breaths, letting go a little more on each outbreath and letting yourself sink down into your mat.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Inhale and lift your right leg about a foot off the floor, making a fist with your toes and tensing leg and foot as much as feels good for you. Hold the tension for a few seconds and then exhale very slowly as you lower your leg, unclench your foot, and let all the tension flow out. When your leg reaches the floor. roll your foot from side to side to aid relaxion. Be curious, and savor the feelings that remain for this and all the other exercises in this series.

Repeat on the left side.
Inhale and tense your buttocks, making them as hard as rocks (buns of steel!). Hold the tension for a few seconds, then exhale and let go.
Inhale and puff out your belly as far as it will go. Hold for a few seconds, then exhale and let it flatten.
Inhale and puff out your chest as far as you can. Hold for a few seconds and then exhale and let go.
Inhale, and lift your right arm off the mat, make a fist, and tense the arm. Hold for a few seconds then exhale and let your arm relax back into the mat.
Inhale and lift your left arm off the mat, make a fist, and tense the arm. Hold for a few seconds, then exhale and let go.
Roll your head from side to side several times, breathing abdominally.
Inhale, scrunching your face toward the middle, then exhale and let go.
Inhale, making a yawning face with open mouth and raised eyebrows, then exhale and let go. The Complete Breath
The perfect end to a period of relaxation is the complete breath. It’s a variant of the abdominal breathing that you’re already familiar with. Imagine that in place of your lungs there is a pear-shaped balloon with a long neck. The round part of the balloon is located in your belly, and the long neck extends up through the middle and upper chest. When you breathe in, imagine the belly expanding as the round part of the balloon fills. Then feel the neck of the balloon starting to fill as your middle chest expands. Finally, feel the top of the balloon filling up under the collarbone. As you exhale, feel the top of the balloon under the collarbone empty first, then feel the middle of the balloon emptying as your chest begins to flatten, and finally feel the round part of the balloon flatten as your belly shrinks back down toward the floor.

Take ten complete breaths, concentrating on feeling how the air fills the abdomen, the middle chest, and finally the top of the chest, and then noticing how it leaves the top of the chest, the middle, and finally the abdomen. This breath is particularly restful. It can be used not only at the end of a relaxation period, but like abdominal breathing, any time you need to break the anxiety cycle.

January 27th, 1984 stands out as one of the darkest days in the King of Pop’s life. In an incident that’s often been discussed but never witnessed, Jackson suffered second and third degree burns to his face and scalp while shooting a Pepsi advertisement in front of thousands of fans at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium. For the first time ever, Us Weekly exclusively reveals video from the accident, which occurred when the pyrotechnics were set off too early on the shoot’s sixth take. (Warning: the above video is graphic.)

As the video shows, the premature pyrotechnics exploded on a nearby Jackson when his back was turned to the camera, with sparks igniting the singer’s hair. Jackson, unaware that he’s on fire, continues to perform until he is rushed by dozens of stagehands who quickly help douse the flames. After the fire extinguishers are emptied and the chaos has died down, Jackson emerges with obvious burns on his scalp, with patches of barren flesh where there was hair seconds before. Jackson was rushed to the hospital, but not before reassuring the audience of 3,000 that he was okay.

What did MJ do with the settlement?

Following the 1984 incident, Jackson and Pepsi settled out of court. Always the humanitarian, Jackson donated his $1.5 million settlement to the Brotman Memorial Hospital in Culver City, California, establishing the Michael Jackson Burn Center for Children.

It is potentially very hard on the dancer without the proper training and physical maintenance; and it’s no surprise that many people who dance for fun still end up with plantar fasciitis, metatarsal problems, worn out knees or ankles and rusty hip joints. And yet so few dedicated amateur salsa dancers seem to take the time to warm up before dancing or cool down afterwards – indeed, relatively few instructors seem to provide the opportunity – and you can frequently see people dancing in clubs for hours on end on impossibly high teetery shoes or worn out trainers, both of which are potentially very harmful things in their own ways. Surely one thing that we salseros and salseras can take from our friends in ballroom is the emphasis on posture, supportive shoes and care of the body.

Even if you do have the right shoes, the right attitude to warmups and cooldowns and the right respect for your own physical fitness, dance injuries still happen; as demonstrated by my unfortunate metatarsal. However, being physically fit and equipped with good footwear – not to mention being wise enough to rest when your body needs you to – can make dance injuries a passing inconvenience rather than a potentially permanent problem. Ballet and jazz technique are also instrumental in ensuring that your posture and movements are healthy.

Fellow dancers, I advise you to eat well, sleep well, stretch well and ensure that you’ll be in good form to enjoy dancing for years to come; even if your passion is “only” social dance.

And even while standing, sitting or moving around, we also contribute to bad postural form by slouching our shoulders, pushing our head forward, or letting our buttocks or abdomen stick out which may contribute to more serious problems such as kyphosis, lordosis, or scoliosis.